Steering test stands such as those described, for example, at the website carts.micronova.de/hardware-in-the-loop/lenkungspruefstand.html comprise a steering device consisting of a steering system or a portion of a steering system with a steering gear, a steering assistance and a steering control unit for controlling the steering assistance.
In addition, steering test stands comprise drives, e.g., gear rod drives and/or steering machines for applying forces or torques to the steering gear and/or adjusting a steering angle on the steering device. The drives comprise actuators and converters for controlling the actuators. Such a steering test stand additionally comprises a driving simulator with a control unit for controlling the drives and/or their converters and a computer unit equipped with a program for simulating static and/or dynamic properties of a motor vehicle. The computer unit transmits simulated targets for the drives and/or converters to the control unit. An actual steering angle measured on the steering device is included in the simulation.
For test purposes the steering control unit is connected to the computer unit. The steering control unit is tested for proper functioning by means of the simulation of driving maneuvers, calculation of corresponding signals on a real-time-capable computer unit and the corresponding application of external forces and/or torques via the drives.
A steering test stand in which a driver's steering is input manually via a steering wheel is described at klotz.de/de/kfz_lenkungen/lenkungs_pruefstand_hand.html This steering test stand does not have a steering machine but instead the steering device is equipped with a manually operated steering wheel. The steering forces to be applied are imparted to the test subject haptically. However, this test stand is not equipped with a computer unit for simulating realistic driving maneuvers.
A use of a force feedback steering wheel in simulating vehicle dynamics is described in the document “Integration of a driving simulator into an in-the-loop steering test stand developing steer-by-wire systems” tecday.de/files/4._tecday_meroth.pdf. In this document, a steering system is simulated and the calculated steering torque is imparted to a test driver unit by the force feedback steering wheel. The force feedback steering wheel comprises a force feedback motor which is controlled by means of suitable converters and the steering torque is built up on the steering wheel. However, the system described here is not equipped for testing a real steering system with a steering control unit.